hey @jaynie, thanks for the kind words! Sounds like a tough time you went through as well. It is certainly a tricky situation. We still question to some degree if there was no other choice, since the hospitals in this area seem have an unusually high level of C-section deliveries. The latest stats from our hospital suggest nearly 40% of births there end in C-sections, which seems nuts!

That's not to say we doubt that it was the correct course of action in our case, but it does make you think... Hospitals seem to follow the "better safe than sorry" mantra, especially as it's a win-win situation for them.

Not only do they make more for C-section deliveries (4 day hospital stay covered by insurance versus 2 days for vaginal delivery), and of course the additional cost of emergency surgery. On the flipside, if anything goes wrong (as happened in your case), the liability they face could be through the roof.

That said, I'm so happy to hear it worked out okay for you in the end. Not sure exactly what Jude has, but it does seem that marks such as these do tend to disappear on their own over time, or at least fade quite a bit...

Link: Infantile Hemangiomas: About Strawberry Baby Birthmarks